Forum Post #3- Kelsey Goede

What speaks to you?
While I was watching the videos I was very impressed with how the students were responding to the art and how engaged all of them were. One thing I really loved hearing was that the student responses were different, that shows me that each student was viewing the art piece in their own way and they were interpreting it in different ways. Another thing that really spoke to me in the videos was the all the students were truly focused on the art work and their discussions, they were not off topic or bored, this shows me they were engaged and enjoying what they were doing.

Does it give you any other ideas?
After reading the article and watching the videos it gave me an idea on how I can integrate art in with writing and reading lessons. I think that integrating writing with art will help the students be more engaged and enjoy their writing. One thing I would love to try would be to show the students an art piece and have them write a paragraph about what they notice in the art piece. How is the person in the art piece feeling and why do you think that? Where is the art piece taking place?

How do you integrate art into your current curriculum?
This is an area that I truly struggle in, I have a hard time figuring how to incorporate art in with my general curriculum. When I do integrate art I do it in very subtle ways, I will have students color a multiplication table or cut out shapes to form others. After taking this class I have learned so many new strategies and I am really looking forward to being able to integrate art even more in my classroom.

 Other reactions?
One thing that I thought was very interesting was that there was a difference between art integration and art enhancement in the classroom, I always thought of those two things as being the same. I now know that in order to integrate art in the classroom it is best to match it with two standards, what you are teaching and an art standard to fully integrate it in the classroom. Another thing I found very interesting was that in order to be very successful in art integration it is best to have a school with a good arts program. The school that I teach at does fairly well with the arts, however; we do not have an art teachers so it is the general education teacher teaching art.